My good friend Zdravko Saveski recently penned an article for the July/August 2007 issue of the Canadian journal Relay (download the complete PDF here). The article, entitled "Socialist Organizing in Post-Communist Macedonia,"provides analysis of the main problems facing the Macedonian left through discussion of specific and unique domestic and regional issues. Included in the article is a short piece on the so-called "naming dispute," in which Zdravko accurately describes the dispute as a "preoccupation with ethnic issues, so easily aroused by the nationalist political parties and other organizations." This is, in fact. a profound statement, succinctly characterizing the nature of this significant distraction for the working classes of Macedonia, Greece and Bulgaria.
Additionally, Zdravko discusses the problem of "nostalgia for the communist past" in the former Yugoslavia, noting:
The social standards were high in the former Yugoslavia, the repression – low, and the communist leader, Josip Broz Tito, very popular. Comparing the present with the former system, the common people are ignoring the issue of democracy-dictatorship and tend to concentrate on the social issues.
Zdravko's intriguing perspective and his level of insight are characteristics which are difficult enough to come by in many publications by the international left, to say nothing of the shortcomings of the mainstream (bourgeois) press. The issues facing the left in the Republic of Macedonia are a series of complexities which include dynamics and conditions that are unique to the region itself. These problems are an addition to the myriad of more general problems faced by progressives and the radical left throughout the world. Should the Macedonian working class rise to these challenges and ultimately present a strong, unified, and sustainable movement, perhaps the working people of the world will share in the optimism of Koco Racin and proclaim, "As you have prevailed, we'll prevail as well!"
Well done Zdravko!
